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Info:
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Model Name              : Martian
Model description       : The evil Martian invader from "Mars Attacks!" for UT2k4
Release                 : Beta 2
Author                  : Yasser Malaika
Email Address           : yassermalaika@yahoo.com

If you enjoy this model, please send me an email. I'd love to hear from you.

***This is a beta version. Please send me feedback regarding how the model looks and works. If possible, please include what you consider to be the weakest aspects. 

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Installation:
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Required:

Copy the following files into the right places under your UT2k4 folder:

/Animations/MartianMeshAnim.ukx
/KarmaData/MartianKarma.ka
/Sounds/MartianSounds.uax
/Textures/MartianTex.utx
/System/Martian.upl
/System/Martian.u

These are the voicepack files, which are optional but recommended:

/System/MartianVoice.u
/System/MartianVoice.int

Optional:

The following Player files are identical to the Martian.upl with the exception of team skin behavior. (See below for details.) You can have any or all installed, but I suggest keeping only one in your system folder at any one time.

/System/MartianTeamSkinB.upl
/System/MartianNoTeamSkin.upl


Server:

For use on a server, navigate to the UT2k4 System directory and open the file 'UT2004.ini'.
Then, under the section [Engine.GameEngine], add the following line:

ServerPackages=Martian
ServerPackages=MartianVoice

UT2k4 no longer requires that you paste bio text into your /System/XPlayers.int file, as it's included in the .upl. It is included here just in case old habits die hard:

Martian=Name and Age: Unknown|Race: Martian|............|yAk ak ak GAGK! AaacKK!|(Translation:'Nice planet... We'll take it!')|SEE!! ..the terrible onslaught of angry aliens from the red planet!|THRILL!! ..as the invasion scorches maps everywhere.|SHRIEK!! ..when these monsters with huge, slimy brains threaten the very existence of the human race.|FIGHT BACK!! Show these evil invaders our weapons of mass yodeling and take back our planet!||

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Background Info:
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In 1962, the Topps trading card company released the bubble-gum card series known as "Mars Attacks". Although the card series was discontinued due to parent reaction towards the highly graphic and over-the-top violent nature of the images, it retained a cult following. The cards also became quite valuable... I was first introduced to the series while working at a collectibles store in high school.

In 1996, director Tim Burton created a schlocky movie adaptation that not only paid homage to the card series, but also to the entire genre of 'B' sci-fi movies. Ironically, it employed an all-star cast and VERY expensive digital effects. Although it didn't do so well at the box office, it has assumed a cult following of its own.

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Play Information:
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Player Size:
The Martians, being the "little green men" that they are, are somewhat smaller than the average UT2k4 player. The current mesh scale of 0.28 makes them appear at their true size. If you'd like the martian to be closer in size to the standard UT2k4 players, you may change the mesh scale value to 0.37 in UnrealEd.


Custom Animations:
Yes. These were a neccesity due to the Martian's strange body proportions. Also, the helmet only looked good when it was rigidly linked to the chest bone, and this made the head clip when using the default animations. (Flipping the normals on the helmet helped, but then it didn't look "right" and often clipped anyway.) Also, I wanted the eyes, cheek danglies, and eyebrows to articulate in order to provide more character. Since the Martians in the movie had quick, choppy movements as well as shifty eyes, I felt that it was important to add these elements in the game.


If you want to get a better look at the animations, press tab and type "behindview 1" into the console. (Or you can press F4.) This takes you into a third person view. An even better way to see the martian up close is to type "freecamera 1" into the console. The free camera is pretty useless for playing, but it allows you to see the front of the model much more easily. To play the one anim that really makes this model sing: type 'v','6','0','3'


Custom Sound FX:
Yes. These are linked to certain taunts and other animation actions automatically. They are mostly sampled from the movie. I also have optional custom pain and death sounds in the Martian.u file. Although more fun to play with, using this custom .u may possibly trigger cheat detection and break network play. (It works fine online in the cases I've tested so far.) If this happens, please let me know. You should simply remove the offending Martian.u file from your system directory to restore network compatibility.


Team Skins:
Yes, two sets. One includes full red and blue space suits from the UT2k3 version. A second set (now the default) keeps the signature green suit, but adds team color on the collar, tanks, and accent areas. A third option forces the green suit in all cases. This is great for playing solo vs. a team of martians in their original suits. :-)
Please note that in the movie, the green armor is brighter and more saturated. This has been intentionally tuned down for this model to fit into the visual context of UT2k4, as well as to avoid washing out in many maps.

CUstom RagDoll:
The ragdoll is somewhat mis-sized on purpose, as it makes the martians eyes bug out while they flop around. (A happy accident I decided to keep!)

Custom Skeleton:
Yes. Zap a Martian with the secondary fire of the link gun or fall into lava to check it out.

Custom Voice Pack:
Yes. Wouldn't be the Mars Attacks! martian without "Don't run, we are your friends!", would it?

Known Bugs:
-The glass helmet does not de-rez properly. This is because it is a third skin and might require net play-breaking code changes to fix.
-The alpha texture around the teeth and cheek danglies overlaps, creating a see-through effect. This is a due to the way the Unreal engine handles alpha channel transparency for single maps on overlapping  polys, which is appropriate for real-time performance. Although there are ways around it, I didn't feel that the artifacts were noticable enough in-game.
-People have reported that the portrait doesn't show in the player selection screen.
-The legs may improperly oriented in the Chaos mod. This is due to the Chaos skeletal system.

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Construction:
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Model:
Model and UV maps were made in 3dsmax 5.0 based on movie reference. I used the standard polygon modeling technique of starting with primitives and modifying, welding, turning edges, and so forth. The skins were done in layers including color, saturation, lightness, a baked shading/shadows layer, surface detail, and grime. Physique was used for rigging, and the custom animations are modified versions of the bipeds released by Epic. (Thank you Epic!) The rest were created from scratch.

Poly Count              : 3487 triangles
Vert Count              : 1952 vertices (+ use of smoothing groups)

SkinS:
Skin textures were made using Micrografx Picture Publisher 10 and my trusty Wacom tablet.
3 Total for the mesh: 1 Body shader:(1024*1024) 1 Head: (512*512+alpha) 1 Helmet shader: (512*512+alpha) There is also a single Env. map plus a specularity mask for extra detail in and to keep each part appropriately shiny. 

Sounds:
Some voice sounds were sampled from the movie, others were created by recording myself then modifying via mechanize, flanger, and pitch adjustment filters (Goldwave) to sound like the translating device from the movie. I then mixed these with noise from the movie translating device in some cases.

Voice Pack:
The voice pak was built with UT2K4VoicePackager by Paul Catalano (www.xgxlan.com/vp). Very cool tool. Thank you!

ACKS:    4
FFIRES:  4
NAMES:   2
ORDERS: 10
OTHERS: 34
TAUNTS: 25
TOTAL UNIQUE: 79

Other software used:
DVDx, UnrealEd 3, Umod Wizard


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Ownership and Copyright:
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Mars Attacks is the property of the Topps Company, Inc. 
Mars Attacks logos and images (TM) & Copyright (c) of The Topps Co., Inc.
http://www.topps.com/

Mars Attacks! Movie and Movie images (TM) & Copyright (c) of Warner Brothers.

UT2k4(R) is a registered trademarks of Digital Extremes and/or Epic Megagames.

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Why, you ask?:
==============

I wanted to create this player model for several reasons:

1. I really enjoyed the movie when it first came out. It was a quirky picture, and I found watching it to be an unexpectedly guilty pleasure. A 'B' movie with an 'A' effects budget, Danny Elfman score, and superstar cast? Odd, to be sure, but very, very fun. It's refreshing when movies don't take themselves so seriously. The first time I watched as the Martians encounter their ultimate weakness, well, I knew this film would be a keeper. Anyway, I felt that the portrayal of the Martians in the film made a *perfect* character for a first person shooter.

2. Since it's been years since I was in the game industry, I wanted to keep my CG skills sharp and in practice with the current generation of tools.

3. Because of the focus on architecture and environemnts in my professional work, character implementation has historically been among the weakest parts of my portfolio. Hopefully, having a strong, highly playable character will address that shortcoming, and also demonstrate that I can execute a wide variety of tasks; model, rig, skin, animate, add audio, and tune for playability at a certain level of skill.

4. The movie provided a really good source of reference. (The folks at ILM sure set a pretty high standard.) Because my goal was to demonstrate that I can succesfully capture "character" in a game engine, I needed a widely known, yet not often used subject. That way, the quality can be judged in a more critical fashion both by myself and others.

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The Honorable Thing To Do:
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This is a freeware model, but... If you enjoy playing this character, please consider purchasing the movie:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0790731452/qid=1076074936//ref=pd_ka_1/102-5511892-5064106?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846

Although I did create all the files for this model, it's important to remember that all aspects of this character belong to their respective owners. Also, a lot of people worked very hard to create both the original card series and the movie. In my opinion, the best way for the gaming community to recognize those facts is to give a little back. It's not terribly expensive, and if you're a sci-fi fan it's a fun viewing.

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References/Links:
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-The official movie website:

http://marsattacks.warnerbros.com/

This site is very 1996, but it contains a few useful nuggets of info. In particular, it describes the martian suit material as made of "Flexible rubber texture. Bullet proof. Material unknown."

-Zelda's Mars Attacks Home Page:

http://www.marsattacksfan.com/homepage.htm

This is the best fan site I could find, and it features images of the actual original trading card set: 
http://www.essex1.com/people/zelda/gallery1.htm

Very cool indeed!


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Future Projects:
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If anyone out there is looking for a project to compliment this model, here's a few ideas:

-A custom weapon for the martian death-ray guns. These would be handy, and could be made by modifying the link gun. Please note that I have sound effects all ready to go for this!

-A mutator that changes the skin texture on the helmet and/or head upon death would be cool. The MartianTex.utx package includes textures with shattered, exploded, and green goo-filled helmets. It also has a green goo smeared head. I know that these can be changed in-game, but I don't know how to do it without a custom class/.u file, thus breaking net play. I still need to learn mutators... (Epic folks: WOuld it be possible to add an animation notify event that can swap skins? That would allow for some very cool stuff to happen without triggering cheat protection...)

-The martian flying saucer would make for a very cool vehicle... :-)

-An mutator/gametype that would allow you to fight against waves of Martians invasion-style. A radio playing a Slim Whitman song could be the secret weapon against them perhaps???  :-) )


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Thanks:
=======

Laura: Thanks for sitting through Mars Attacks with me, even though you're not into sci-fi and the mosquitoes ate us alive until we moved inside. Love will make you do crazy things, I guess.

Russ: You were the first play tester, and your positive reaction really encouraged me to finish it. Thanks man!

The original card series crew:
-Len Brown and Woody Gelman, original creators of the Mars Attacks card series.
-Bob Powell and Wally Wood, who did the pencil drawings.
-Norm Saunders, the famous pulp-comic artist, who did the painting.

The movie crew, including:
-Tim Burton, director. Thanks for creating such a fantastic homage.
-Jonathan Gems, screenwriter. Masterfully done!
-Jim Mitchell, Visual effects supervisor for Industrial Light and Magic
-Michael Fink, Visual effects supervisor for Warner Digital Studios

Thanks also to the Polycount.com crew and community. I couldn't have done it without the exceptional sharing of info and critiques. What a resource!

In particular:
-John, Sandbag, Cheapalert, Harsh, and Garee for crits, feedback, and advice.
-Chris Ollis: The work you've done was inspiring, and the tutorials you posted were *enormously* useful.
-Fraggin Phun and Rainecloud over at The Voice Shrine: Thanks for writing the excellent tutorials on voice packs and for your support. The extra sounds really made the character come to life.
-chiQ: Thanks for the specular tutorial. Made a *huge* difference. Skin really is armour.
-SkullBox, Neosurfer, and Praetorius for their extremely useful forum postings.

Last, but not least, The team at Epic/Digital Extremes, for creating a great game/narrative/architectural walhthrough engine, and keeping it mod-friendly.

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END:
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Still reading this far down? Go zap some martians already!

Enjoy!

-Y

P.S. No animals (or members of congress) were barbecued during the production of this player model.
